//------------------------------//
// Return of the Dragon 
// Story: Codex Equestria: Notable Events 
// by Red Qilin 
//------------------------------//

Return of the Dragon

"If mana bomb tests continue, another Dracozilla may appear somewhere in the world again."
--- Dr. Kyohay Yamane, after the death of the first Dracozilla.

The devastation caused by the first Dracozilla did haunted the dreams of Neighpon and the Cloven Empire long after the beast met his end. But what scared everyone more was the thought that the Clovenist Mana Bomb test, and potentially ones by other parties, may one day create another one. After all, if one dragon exposed to the bomb could mutate into Dracozilla, who was to say another one could not come into being? And worse yet, if those fears did come to pass, the only means of killing the original was note lost.

Unfortunately, these fears did eventually come to pass. And, as fate would have it, it would coincide with another nightmare of Neighpon's past returning to wreak havoc once again.

What would follow would fill Neighpon's hearts with terror... that, however, would one day turn to hope.

Background

"This attack will not stand!"
--- People’s Secretary Vikont Byalagora, echoing the sentiments of many Clovenist leaders and citizens on the disappearance of a Cloven vessel.

While Neighpon has a primarily pony population, they rely heavily on fishing for exports to more carnivorous sapience or to feed pets and other animals. As such they often use Pegasi and Griffins to spot schools of fish for vessels. One of these pegasi, named Little Forest, found himself caught in lightning storm and was injured, landing on a small, tundra island. While waiting for rescue, he would discover something that would shock and horrify the world.

At the same time, a volcano in Neighpon suddenly ceased its dormancy and began erupting without any prior warning. While alarming in and of itself, what was more alarming was pictures of the eruption showing what seemed to be a large, dragon-like creature emerging from the caldera. While initially believed to be a dragon, the sighting of a strange, ape-like monster at a nearby lake hours later began to worry Neighponese officials that new Kaiju had emerged. Worries that scared them even more when Little Forest was rescued and reported what he had seen, which at the moment was kept a secret as not to cause panic.

This all worsened when the powder keg brewing with the Cloven Empire nearly blew upon the destruction of a Cloven vessel at sea without a trace. Already fearful of the outside world, the Cloven Empire accused Principalities of Equestria and other nations of the crime. A war seemed inevitable...and forced the Empress of Neighpon's hoof.

The Truth is Revealed

"Dracozilla...I was hoping I would never hear that name again..."
--- Empress Nadeshiko of Neighpon, upon being alerted to the existence of Dracozilla Junior.

With her hoof forced, Neighpon's government had no choice but to reveal the true cause of the Cloven vessel's disappearance:

Little Forest, during his stay on the island, witnessed a battle involving a third, sea monster-like kaiju. While disturbing in and of itself, it was the other combatant that was more worrying. A second Dracozilla. Locked in combat with the other kaiju, the two went falling into the sea and disappeared beneath the waves shortly before his rescue.

The knowledge that the vanished vessel had been carrying a mana bomb (according to the Clovenists, to be stored away and nothing more) that had been found drained of its wild magic in the wreckage only further confirmed that its destruction was the work of the second Dracozilla, and Neighpon's kaiju and the world mobilized a search for both Dracozilla and the other three kaiju.

More Shocking Revelations

“Listen to me, Dracozilla the second here isn’t the only problem we’ll be dealing with – an old darkness is returning, and those three ‘kaijus’ are one of its heads!”
--- AK Yearling, best-selling author and historian, on the other three kaijus.

While the search continued, AK Yearling of Equestria's studies uncovered a horrifying fact about the trio of kaiju that had been sighted. Long ago, when  Yamata no Orochi, the Demon King was vanquished, he cursed Neighpon before his imprisonment: his seven severed heads would unleash seven demons to ravage the land. The description of the three creatures revealed they were actually a singular being called the Third Demon King for being born from Orochi's third head to be severed. This creature had the capability of transforming between three unique forms, healing as it did so.

A terrifying time for Neighpon had begun, as not only had the most deadly kaiju of modern times returned, the dying curse of the deadliest of ancient times was coming to pass.

The Dragon and the Demon

“No monster will be a match against Clovenist ingenuity and unfettered determination!”
--- People's Centurion Malinav, a Belomaneian pegasi Clovenist Imperial Aerocorp liaison to Neighpon, as the Red Sun takes off on its mission.

The Neighponese Special Defence Forces located the Demon King and began attacking him in his ape-like form, only for him to turn into his flying form and rain lightning down upon them before beginning to ravage the nearby area on a warpath.

At the same time, Dracozilla emerged from the ocean and began a warpath of his own along the Neighponese cost. With the good kaiju still scattered searching for four separate kaiju, Neighpon was at a loss to deal with the two currently rampaging across the country side.

Desperate to save face for requiring aid in dealing with the first Dracozilla, the Clovenist proudly asked to aid with a super weapon of their own to deal with the second one. They hoped that if they destroyed the second Dracozilla, then the tarnishing of their country's pride at the hooves of the first may be forgotten. Their military division had developed a heavily armoured airship in case of another such assault, known as the 'Red Sun'. With the go ahead of the desperate Neighponese government, the Red Sun was deployed to confront Dracozilla in the Neighponese city of Koneighto.

Armoured with magically enhanced metal and capable of unleashing a powerful arsenal of conventional weapons and special magical weaponry, the Red Sun let loose with an all-out attack on Dracozilla, at first seeming to be holding its own due to its armour withstanding his wild magic ray. However, as the battle wore on, the armour wore down while Dracozilla's durability and regenerative abilities held out. Losing structural integrity, the Red Sun was forced into a fighting retreat. Dracozilla, however, would not allow it and finally inflicted enough damage to down the craft, at which point he toppled a building over on top of it, reducing the Clovenist Empire's super weapon to nothing more than scrap metal.

Meanwhile, the Third Demon King continued his rampage across northern Neighpon's towns and villages, but thankfully evacuations succeeded in preventing the same loss of life as Dracozilla's original rampage, but the damage seemed impossible to stop.

Dragon vs Demon

"We have no other choice...let them fight."
--- A Captain of the Neighponese Special Defence Forces, informing his troops of the desperate plan.

With the Clovenist attempt to defeat Dracozilla ending in failure, the Third Demon King continuing his rampage, and unable to call for any of Neighpon's heroic kaiju in time, a radical plan was suggested: use one threat to defeat another. Dragons were highly territorial as it was, so luring Dracozilla to the Demon King may be the only valuable means of stopping them.

And thus Dracozilla and the Demon King were lured to the same location by Neighpon’s Special Defense Forces. Roaring in fury, Dracozilla charged Orochi's third son.

What ensued was a long, brutal battle between two titans that continued for what seemed like hours. While both were powerful, Dracozilla's ability to regenerate damage and the Demon King healing him when he changes form, neither could gain a decisive advantage over the other no matter what wound they inflicted on the other.

However, when Dracozilla managed to blow off the Demon King's wings in his dragon form and send him falling into the sea, the beast emerged in a new form altogether. A nightmarish mismatch of his other three forms far larger than even Dracozilla himself. According to AK Yearling's research, this is the Third Demon King's true and most powerful form.

However, while in its strongest form, it also loses its shape-shifting ability, and thus its ability to heal from damage. As a result, while this momentarily gave the beast the advantage and it began to gain the advantage on Dracozilla, it began to accumulate damage as the mutated dragon's regeneration kept him from sustaining any permanent injury.

Finally, Dracozilla sunk his teeth into the Demon King's throat, and choked it until he finished it off by firing his heat ray straight through, beheading the beast and sending its corpse falling into the sea. Moments later, an explosion of dark energy erupted into the sky, taking the form of one of Orochi's heads and necks before dispersing.

The Dragon Sleeps

“Little Forest… we have beaten Dracozilla, for you.”
--- Last transmission from First Lieutenant Great Forest, elder brother of Little Forest, moments before his heroic sacrifice.

After killing the Third Demon King, Dracozilla returned to the sea and instantly attacked another Clovenist vessel carrying another Mana Bomb, which he destroyed and consumed the wild magic from before vanishing again. He was discovered not long after to have returned to the icy island on which he'd first been found.

Knowing they had little choice, Neighpon's Special Defence Forces launched an assault on him there. With the realization that the snow and ice on the surrounding mountain ranges was sufficient to bury the kaiju, the Special Defence Forces focused all their efforts into collapsing the frozen bodies of waters right on top of Dracozilla.

With many losses, Dracozilla was ultimately buried in an avalanche, plunging the beast into hibernation. The final blow was delivered by First Lieutenant Great Forest, serving on board one of the military airships taking part in the assault. He is the elder brother of the Neighponese pegasi who discovered the second Dracozilla, and feared the worst for Little Forest after the hospital he was staying in was destroyed during Dracozilla’s fight with the Third Demon King, before it could be evacuated. With his vessel crippled by Dracozilla’s wild magic beam, most of the crew and his superior officer killed in action, he piloted and crashed the airship into the mountain side with enough force to trigger the avalanche, dying without knowing that Little Forest had escaped in time and was alive and well.

Aftermath

“In his tomb beneath the earth, dead Orochi lies waiting…”
--- A passage from the Orochi Documents, a collection of unholy scriptures written by Neighponese cultists who worshiped Yamata no Orochi.

While several towns and parts of city were destroyed, the loss of life was considerably less than from the original Dracozilla's rampage. Primarily due to the second Dracozilla being far less actively destructive than his predecessor and the Third Demon King being kept largely out of the main population centers. Still the damages, both in terms of loss of life and structural damages was serious. First Lieutenant Great Forest was posthumously awarded the Grand Cordon by the Empress of Neighpon, the highest award for exceptional merit, for his sacrifice in stopping Dracozilla, with his younger brother Little Forest attending the award ceremony.

The Cloven Empire largely avoided more fall-out from the appearance of the second monster, as there was no direct evidence linking their mana bomb to his existence and their attempt to defeat the beast with Red Sun...at least internationally. Protests began in multiple countries, demanding the mana bomb projects be completely scrapped for fear of other such monsters coming into being.

In the long run, however, the second Dracozilla would eventually turn out to be a boon, when years later he would begin to mellow out and the destroyer would become a saviour.

As for the Third Demon King, however, a most ominous black mark had been left from this incident: according to authorities, around Neighpon, malicious youkai and underground cultists who still revers the fallen ryujin, far from dismayed by Dracozilla’s destruction of the Third Demon King, were celebrating. For it is said, according to legend, that should all the Fallen-Spawn demons that grew from the heads of Orochi be destroyed, the Demon King shall rise from its grave, and bring forth a new age of darkness upon Neighpon. With the first of the heads destroyed, those who were interrogated claim, the Demon King’s dying curse would begin to take effect, and a countdown has begun, one that would see the other demons from Orochi’s severed heads be slain in turn, regardless of any efforts to prevent it so.

With that in mind, many in Neighpon hoped that when the time comes, the new Dracozilla could be found among the number of kaijus who would rise to save them from a nightmare of Neighpon’s mythical past…